Types of Motives

Primary motives ( physiology/ biological motives)

Primary motives are also called biological or physiology of life for the individual. These motives are inborn and innate. These motives are rooted in the physiological state of the body, sleep, rest, temperature regulation, need for o2, etc. Biological motives are triggered by a physiological imbalance in the body. The body tends to maintain a state of equilibrium which is called homeostasis. The homeostasis mechanism is supplemented by motivated behavior. E.g: falling temperature leads to motivated behavior: putting on a sweater or jacket, and closing windows and doors when the body lack substance such as food and water, homeostasis creates a dry state that pushes a person to seek food and water. One gets satisfied after the gratification of such primary motives for some duration of time.

Secondary motives

Social motives are secondary motives. They are called social because they are learned in social groups and because they usually involve other people. Social motives are important components of personality. The strength of social motives differs greatly from one individual to another. E.g: the need for achievement (Achievement) need for affiliation, nPower, status.

Achievement motives

A need to succeed and to strive against a standard of excellence is called an achievement. The person with high achievement motives are, task-oriented and prefer to work on a task that is challenging and on which their performance can be evaluated by comparing others. They tend to be persistent in working on a task that they perceive as career-related or personal characteristic (such as intelligence) parental and other great people's role serves the level of achievement motivation the individual.

Affiliation

The need to associated with other people is called affiliation. The person who has a strong need for affiliation concerns for establishing, maintaining or repairing friendly relation. She or he never miss the opportunity to be with friends, families and other people. Such person makes more phone calls, visits with friends, family members, relatives, seeks approval from other, dislikes, disagreeing with strangers, seeks and enjoys cooperation with others and gets better grades from warm teachers.

Aggression

The motive to overcome opposition forcefully or to fight and revenge the injury, or course or ridicule others is called a need for aggression. A person with high aggression make an attack, hurt and sometimes kills, may aggress verbally by means of insults or attempts to damage others reputation. The aggression may be hostile or instrumental. Hostile aggression has its goal to harm another person. E.g. a person may use threats to force other. Instrumental aggression is used as a way of satisfying some other motives. E.g. a child may use aggression as a way of gaining the attention of others. Aggression is learned behaviour and environmental and social sources paly major role for it. Intense frustration, verbal insult or negative evaluation from another person, an unpleasant environment like high temperature, intense noise, crowding, traffic jam, increase aggression.

Power

The motives of a person to produce intended effects on the behaviour or emotions of the another person are power. The goals of power motivation are to influence, control , lead , charm others and enhance one’s own reputation in the eyes of the eyes of the other people. The person with high power motives express themselves by aggression action, participation in competitive sports ( e.g. basketball, football, athletes ) among male by drinking and sexually dominating women, by obtaining and collecting possession such as fancy cars and bikes, by choosing occupations in which they have a chance to have impact on others such as businessman, teaching etc.

Curiosity

Curiosity is define as a need, thirst or desire for knowledge. It has a motivated force that is stimulated internally ( boredom ) or by external stimuli. People with curiosity motives think and ask a question of thing they saw, read or listen from anywhere and explore in the other to find an answer to their questions. Parents encouragement and school environment may encouragement may encourage or discourage curiosity of the children.

Status

It is the motive to have honor or prestige in society. It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group. The status can be achieved through education, occupation, and marriage. People with high status show the following qualities:

-confidence, generosity, intelligence, mental and emotional stability, happiness, etc.

The status can be determined in two ways. One can own their status by their own achievements which are known as achieved status. Alternatively, one can be placed in a stratification system by their inherited position which is called ascribed status, that is fixed for an individual at birth.

Self-actualization

The motive to realize all of the ones potentiality is called self-actualization. It is also regarded as a master motive. According to Abraham Maslow, self-actualized are the people who use the fullest use of their capabilities. The goal of self-actualization varies from person to person. For some, it means achievement in a scientific field, for others, it means leadership in politics or in the community, for skill others, it means living life fully without being unduly restrained by social conventions.

Unconscious

Unconscious motives refer to the hidden and unknown desires that are the real reason for a thing that people do. A considerable part of human behavior is stimulated and driven by unconscious motives. According to psychoanalysis, there need not is any direct connection at all between a conscious desire and the unconscious desire underlying it. Certain behavior is so involuntary that no reasons are available for them in the individual's conscious mind. E.g. a person can be an accident- prone because of his unconscious desire to injure himself and not because of being careless or unaware of the safety rules. Certain workers damage more equipment compared to others due to their unconscious feelings of antagonism toward influential figures.